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ANNA FREUD'S MANY TALENTS AND HER CURIOSITY WERE without limit. She addressed herself with equal interest to psychoanalysis and its applications to many different fields and conditions. I shall not undertake to assess the significance of Anna Freud's contributions, for it may be too early to do this. There are, in my opinion, good reasons why Anna Freud's work does not at present lend itself to a full historical examination. In the changing emphasis on issues and topics, those who stay close to the central body of analytic theory and clinical practice may lose visibility. Those who set themselves apart or who add knowledge which cannot easily be integrated into the main body of psychoanalysis usually are conspicuous.
It was more than Anna Freud's filial role that led her to assert her dual aim of preserving the main body of Freud's propositions and constantly searching to expand psychoanalytic knowledge, which she then embedded in and connected with established psychoanalytic theory and practice.
She gave significant assistance to the birth of ego psychology without reducing the importance of drive, superego, and reality influences. When she established child psychoanalysis, she did not identify it as the "Anna Freud approach" or the "Anna Freud school." As she put it, there is only one classic analysis,